Health in United Kingdom

National Health Service

The National Health Service or NHS is the publicly-funded healthcare system in England. The term is also commonly used to refer to any other or all the national health services in the UK. The NHS provides healthcare to anyone normally resident in England or any other part of the United Kingdom with most services free at the point of use for the patient though there are charges associated with eye tests, dental care, prescriptions, and many aspects of personal care.

The NHS is largely funded from general taxation (including a proportion from National Insurance payments).The UK government department responsible for the NHS is the Department of Health, headed by the Secretary of State for Health. Most of the expenditure of The Department of Health is spent on the NHS.

In Britain, there is a term that refers to the service of NHS, its name Services free at the point of use. This term, which is commonly used, means that people generally do not pay anything for their doctor visits, nursing services, surgical procedures or appliances, consumables such as medications and bandages, plasters, medical tests, x-rays, CT or MRI scans etc. Hospital inpatient and outpatient services are free, both medical and mental health services. This is because these services are all pre-paid from taxation.

Eligibility for free NHS services is based on having "permanent residence status" (a birthright for some or granted by the Home Office for those who have immigrated). The person must be registered with a general practitioner and have an NHS card and number. This will include overseas students with a visa to study at a recognized institution for 6 months or more, but not visitors on a tourist visa for example.

The other term of NHS

The National Health Service (NHS) is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. Only the English NHS is officially called the National Health Service, the others being NHS Scotland and NHS Wales. Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland is called the HSC.

Each system operates independently, and is politically accountable to the relevant government: the Scottish Government, Welsh Assembly Government, the Northern Ireland Executive, or the UK government. Despite their separate funding and administration, there is no discrimination when a resident of one country of the United Kingdom requires treatment in another although a patient will often be returned to their home area when they are fit to be moved.

Logos of National Health Service in each country of United Kingdom:

                                    

                                     

The Facilities and Service of The National Health Service.

As an integral and professional commission in health that service public, the National Health Service (NHS) provides some services and facilities that can give ease for their consumer. Some of these will be explained as followed:

1. NHS Direct

NHS Direct is a service which provides a nurse-led telephone helpline. Launched in 1998 in England, NHS Direct aims to provide people at home with fast and convenient access to health information and service.

2. NHS Walk-in Centre

NHS Walk-in Centers are a network of centers where no appointment is necessary. With this service, the patient doesn’t have to make an appointment anymore when they need healthcare advice, information or treatment from medical. This service offers quick access to a range of service.

3. Health Action Zone

This is a health commission that stands in across of England, including inner city, rural, or suburban. Health Action Zone aims to make measurable improvement in the health of local people and in the quality of treatment and care. They focus on areas such as programs to stop smoking, children’s and young people’s health, and older people’s health.

      

 Family Health Services

The Family Health Services are health commission under NHS Plan. The Family Health Service provided to patients by doctors. This manner also called as GPs (General Practitioners). Some of doctor services are provided here, such as dentist, opticians, and pharmacist.

Someone who wants to use the GPs service must be register their self to Department of Health with fill the form and get a GPs registration number. The facilities of GPs can used in anywhere Family Health Service provider based on the location of the user.

GPs provide the first diagnosis in the case of illness, give advice and may prescribe a suitable course of treatment. The number of GPs user in England is increasing between 1981 and 1999.

Cancer Care

Cancer was one of the three clinical priorities outlined by the UK Government in its NHS Plan. Why does cancer become priorities in UK? Because in the fact, cancer is a major health issue in the UK; one in three people will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, and one in four will die of cancer.

Some 275,000 people were newly diagnosed in 2002. However, cancer survival rates are also increasing with an 11% reduction since 1994/5. Around 154,000 people died of cancer in 2003.

The four most common cancers (breast, lung, colorectal and bowel) accounted for just under half of the deaths from cancer (excluding non melanoma skin cancer)

(Source: Cancer Research UK May 2006)

       The Strategy to Fight for Reducing Cancer:

The Britain’s government had some strategies to reduce the number of deaths from cancer:

1.    Research

Research is an important way to reduce cancer in long term. The National Cancer    Research Institute was formed in April 2001 to coordinate all cancer research in the United Kingdom. At the same time, the National Cancer Research Network was also established. So the UK Government had two institutes to coordinate the struggle for preventing cancer.

2.    Screening

Cancer screening programmes are in operation for breast cancer and cervical cancer. At present, under the United Kingdom’s breast screening cancer programme, every woman aged between 50 and 64 is invited for mammography (breast X-ray). Cancer screening programmes is led by National policy for cervical screening. Their aim is that woman should be screened every three to five years (three-and-a-half-and-a-half-years in Scotland) so as to detect indications of the long developmental stage which may proceed to invasive cancer.

         The progress of the Programme:

Working to achieve the Government’s target of reducing the death rate for cancer by 20% in people under 75 by 2010, good progress has been made recently in this country to tackle cancer with a reduction of more than 12% among people under 75 years between 1995 – 1997 and 2001 – 2003. The death rates for female breast cancer and male lung cancer are falling more quickly than anywhere else in the world, despite a significant rise in the number of newly diagnosed patients with breast cancer.

Coronary Heart Disease
What is good care for heart disease?
Effective treatment of coronary heart disease (CHD) saves lives. Since 2000, there has been a 40% reduction in deaths from heart disease in people under 75. A national review of heart disease services set out standards that define good heart disease care:
• tackling the factors that increase the risk of heart disease, such as smoking, poor diet and little physical exercise
• rapid diagnosis of heart disease and access to diagnostic tests
• rapid access and choice of treatment centre for specialised cardiac care
Treatment overview
CHD cannot be cured but it can be managed effectively with a combination of lifestyle changes, medicine and in some cases surgery. With the right treatment, the symptoms of CHD can be reduced and the functioning of the heart improved.
If you have been diagnosed with CHD, you can reduce your risk of further episodes by making simple lifestyle changes. Stopping smoking after a heart attack, for example, will quickly reduce your risk of a future heart attack to near that of a non-smoker. Other lifestyle changes, such as eating more healthily and being more physically active, will also reduce your future risk of heart disease.
Coronary heart disease accounts for about one in five deaths in men and one in six deaths in women. In addition, the British Heart Foundation estimate that there are over 1 million men living in the UK who have or have had angina (heart-related chest pain), and over 840,000 women.

The Struggle for Other Disease

1.    Immunization

Health authorities / health boards carry out programmes of immunizations  against diphtheria, measles, mumps, whooping cough. The UK was the first country in the world to use a new vaccine to protect against meningitis C. The programme led dramatic reductions meningitis C.

2.    Tuberculosis

The government established a school immunization programme against tuberculosis (TB) in March 2001. The government also intends routine immunization for pupils aged between 13 – 15 years old.

3.    HIV / AIDS

Government strategies to reduce HIV / AIDS transmission include:

Ø  HIV / AIDS health promotion aimed at both the general population and groups at risk.

Ø  Information on antenatal HIV testing to help pregnant woman to reach informed decisions.

Ø  The National AIDS Helpline provides confidential information and advice on all aspects of HIV and AIDS.

Bibliography

translate_cancer strategi.htm

NHS Improvement (Cancer) ) Cancer Home.htm

NHS Cancer Programme.htm

Wikipedia.org

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Other Internet Source